Starry, Starry Night
by Schuyler Lola
Summary: It was the one night she saw everything clearly. Megan's thoughts while Larry's up in space.


**Disclaimer:** I don't even own this computer. Or NUMB3RS. Or ALF. I don't even have rights to this title. Sigh.

**A/N:** This is just a one-shot of what Megan might think while Larry's up in space. The show hasn't really covered it yet, so I'm feeling a gap there.

Starry, Starry Night

Megan Reeves looked behind her as she darted out of the FBI office. She felt horrible about leaving the office while everyone was still working, but Don had waved her off, saying that this was the night she'd be able to see Larry in space and a case should not come in between her promise to him about watching him in orbit.

Although, her not-so-subtle hints for the last week or so, may have helped. She wanted to watch the sky as much as possible, to feel closer to him. Except this case had been hindering it a bit. They had been working from the time they got to the office to five or six o'clock in the morning the next day. She'd go home, crash on her couch (because she didn't have the energy to even stumble blindly to her bedroom) and wake up three or four hours later. Then it was a repetition of the whole sequence again.

She turned the ignition in her car, and sighed. Everything seemed so dull right now. She found this great guy – intelligent, wonderful, an excellent conversationalist and so much more. Now he was in space. That was a dilemma most couples didn't have to face.

If Megan was honest with herself, she would've realized many things about her feelings for Larry. She didn't probe them now, but distantly, she realized that they were complicated. They were very deep as well. Megan was generally a very ordered person, who didn't rely too much on deeper level human connections. Her relationship with her father had made her wary of truly getting to know people. The reading and studying of people, she got that. But usually they were people she didn't know and would probably never see again.

Even reading Don, Colby and David was easier for her than trying to come to terms to with herself. They were her friends, her co-workers, her "brothers". They were doing their best to cheer her up and keep her from losing sight of the fact that Larry was only gone six months.

A minute can change the course of a lifetime. An hour can change your mind. A second can last an eternity. When Larry told her, over dinner, that he was going on the ISS for six months, her initial reaction had been joy. They went to spill the news to the Eppes family and Amita. She still had been so proud, so happy, so overwhelmed with her feelings of how amazed she was.

That night, however, she had woken up from a sad dream. Megan could not for the life of her figure out what it had been, but she did remember waking up with tears on her cheeks. She looked back at Larry to see him sleeping peacefully. Then, she looked out the window to see the night sky. That moment made her realize what his journey would really mean to her, and what had been hiding under her exclamations of delight.

Her apartment building loomed in the distance. Mentally, she began to run through her list of supper options…week-old egg rolls…leftover pizza…cold chicken. Blech. She should really clean out her fridge. It would make an excellent study for some science institute.

The door swung closed behind her with a heavy click. She tossed her coat on the coat tree, and picked up her phone. Maybe some real, not moldy pizza would help with the pains in her stomach. Cheese, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, bacon…

During her wait, she flipped on the TV. What a surprise. Nothing on. Had TV gotten worse since she last sat down and watched it? It had been two months since she had sat down and watched TV. It had time to get worse.

Megan involuntarily winced as she looked around her apartment. Yet another question for the box. When was the last time she'd spent more than five consecutive hours in the apartment?

That one she didn't know, but she did know it involved the week after Larry blasted off. Since then, work had become Priority # 1 in her life. Actually, the only priority that was entertained in her mind. She was reverting to the way she had been – work, work, work, work, and more work. Occasionally, she taught her Krav Maga class.

A buzz came and she pressed the button to let the pizza guy in. Minutes later, she opened to a teenage boy holding a box. "How much do I owe you?" she asked, reaching for her wallet.

"Fifteen bucks." He handed her the box and grinned that way that only teenage boys have. Any other day it would've made her smile at least, but today she was too wound up to notice or care.

Handing him a twenty, she thanked him for the pizza. Settling on the couch, she snatched a piece, forgetting plates. Megan had no deep desire to wash dishes.

A few hours and three pieces of pizza later, a rerun of ALF glowing gently from the screen, Megan kept glancing at her watch. It was almost time to look for Larry. Her telescope was trained on the sky, in focus – she had been adjusting it periodically for the last hour until she felt it was perfect.

The door to her balcony was open, the telescope set up. She sat up straight, half-watching the TV screen and half-watching the clock. Tick, tick, tick. The sound was driving her crazy.

Finally, she rose from the cushions. Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, Megan stepped out onto the deck. She knelt on the ground and looked through the nosepiece. At first there was nothing but the stars shining all over the navy blue sky. She swiveled the telescope, waiting.

A little, flashing blip in the sky came into view. She held her breath, just knowing it was the right one. It blinked, gliding along, and then disappeared. She continued to look through the telescope in case it appeared again. It didn't. She let the breath go.

Sitting back, staring at the heavens above, she whispered, "Do you know how much I miss you?" In her heart, she knew the answer.

She stood up, pulling her blanket closer to her body, and turned to go in to the warm living room. She picked up the telescope and placed gently inside.

Megan went to close the door, but not before she said one thing:

"I love you."


End file.
